HBO Stand-Alone Online Service

Trending News: In 2015, You Won't Need Cable To Watch HBO

Why Is This Important?

Because you'll finally be able to get HBO without having a TV or cable.

Long Story Short

This morning at a Time Warner investors meeting, HBO head Richard Plepler announced that next year, the public will finally be able to get HBO without a cable subscription.

Long Story

HBO has finally figured out what has seemed like an obvious move to many for a while now — providing viewers access to HBO without a cable subscription.

Up until now, Netflix has dominated the online TV-watching realm and has continued to pull in more viewers in recent years by launching their own original programming.

In his announcement, HBO head Richard Plepler said that the goal of releasing an online standalone version of the HBO Go streaming service is to reach "the 80 million homes" they have not yet reached — exactly the market Netflix has been gorging itself on for years.

With shows like Game of Thrones, Mad Men and True Detective, the availability of stand-alone HBO Go will certainly give people something to think twice about when deciding which streaming service they want to throw their money at.

When Plepler talks about the next "80 million homes," one imagines that these are largely the homes of lower income people or young people who may not see the point of buying a subscription to cable, or may not even own a TV. In fact, these could even be people who don't own a computer — ever watched Netflix on your phone? It's not that bad!

Furthermore, a lot of cable TV pales in comparison to the cinematic, long-form dramas of HBO. If HBO is smart enough to make their service as affordable as Netflix has (especially with their family sharing deal), they may just lock down those 80 million homes they're shooting for. What this will mean for cable TV programming is yet to be seen, but it doesn't look good.

Of course, there will still be a portion of the population who refuses to pay for TV in any form and will continue to illegally download shows. But for those who have just about reached the end of their rope with the broken links, the buffering and the soft core porn ads, the availability of streaming HBO Go will be a boon.

All in all, good move HBO (finally).

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Will the super duo of Netflix and HBO Go streaming services mean the end for cable TV?

Disrupt Your Feed: HBO is way late to the game with this announcement.

Drop This Fact: It's estimated that the Game Of Thrones episode "The Children' was illegally downloaded over 7.5 million times within the first few days of its air date.